‘A Discovery of Witches’ Is the Sexy, Escapist Fantasy Show We All Need Right Now

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A Discovery Of Witches

I would have watched A Discovery of Witches a long time ago if I had known it was just Twilight, but for American nerds who had studied abroad at Oxford. I mean, it’s more than that. A Discovery of Witches is a steamy magical adventure series full of forbidden romance, vampire scientists, ancient texts, and messy witch drama. It’s a charming escapist fantasy and it was exactly the show I needed to binge this week — and you might need it, too.

A Discovery of Witches follows a bright American scholar named Diana Bishop (Teresa Palmer) as she returns to her alma mater, Oxford University, to research medieval alchemy. Diana is also, by birth, a witch, and although she is reluctant to embrace her heritage, magic can’t help but follow her. For some mysterious reason, Diana is able to call up a long-lost enchanted manuscript from Oxford’s Bodleian Library. Just opening the book sends out a reverberation of magic that is felt by witches, demons, and vampires, alike. One vampire in particular, Matthew Clairmont (Matthew Goode), begins following Diana. He has been searching for this text forever because it is said to contain the secrets behind the origins of vampires, a race that is going extinct.

Naturally, Matthew finds himself drawn to the scene of Diana, and naturally, Diana leans on Matthew for help when it seems that she can’t trust the witches around her. And, yeah, of course, they fall in love! Even better? THEY FALL IN LOVE IN A FRENCH CASTLE!! It’s a dangerous romance that pits vampires against vampires, and witches against witches, and threatens to topple the fragile balance keeping the magical world in check! A Discovery of Witches is heady and romantic in the best possible way, and I can’t believe it took this long for me to find it.

Photo: Everett Collection

A Discovery of Witches originally debuted as a streaming original on Shudder, Sundance Now, and AMC Premiere in January 2019 before having a linear debut on AMC and BBC America later that spring. However, I did not catch it because, I don’t know, there’s a lot of TV out there. Sometimes you simply can’t find the time to watch a vampire romance on Shudder. Crazy, I know! So I didn’t start watching A Discovery of Witches until my quarantine-based boredom finally pushed me to click on the show’s ubiquitous Roku ads. Almost immediately, I found myself as seduced by the series as Matthew was by the scent of Diana’s blood.

The thing that I really love about A Discovery of Witches is that it’s about well-traveled nerds. Its heroine is a history professor and its hero a Professor of biochemistry. There are many, many scenes set in libraries and laboratories, and words like “folio” are dropped in casual conversation. The story takes us to the idyllic city of Venice (pre-COVID) and to elegant French castles. “She’ll be staying in my tower,” is a sentence that is spoken as if every handsome man in today’s world has his own tower to host a lady in. Everything about this show is pure bliss to me: it combines my love of British drama, period romance, dusty books, and dirty vampire sex. I am in heaven watching this show!

All eight episodes of A Discovery of Witches Season 1 are available to stream on SundanceNOW or Shudder. Thankfully, A Discovery of Witches Season 2 is scheduled to drop later this year. If you’re feeling cooped up, down and out, and are in dire need of escape, make A Discovery of Witches your go-to steamy-times binge.